National Housing Maintenance Forum
NHMF best practice awards 2012
Questions to be addressed
The submission should describe the services provided and explain why they should be considered for the award.
It must then have four sections addressing each of the four questions below. The supplementary questions are entirely optional and it is up to you to consider how best to address each of these four questions. Judges will be more impressed by actual evidence of benefits, than speculation of potential benefits.
The submission may also contain additional sections addressing other questions which you consider relevant to the award. Note that the judges will use a scoring system based on these four questions, so it is in your best interests to address each question clearly.
Question 1 What is innovative about the service provided?
In what way is it innovative? Why was this innovation necessary? How did the innovation evolve? How do you expect it to grow? How do you monitor how effective it is?
Question 2 What are the benefits to
- a) the client
- b) the contractor
- c) the residents
- d) the neighbourhood
How does it enable the client and the contractor to provide a better or more efficient service? What improvements are experienced by residents? What wider community benefits does it provide? Does it also contribute to meeting the government’s efficiency targets and/or sustainability targets? What evidence do you have of the benefits in each case? Note that the weighting for scoring of each sub-category will depend on the award, with best neighbourhood initiative more heavily weighted to (d) above.
Question 3 What were the financial costs and cashable benefits?
What were the costs in developing and implementing the best practice services? What are the additional costs or financial savings in running the services, and from what do they arise? How do you measure the financial benefits? Is their any independent audit of these benefits? How are these benefits shared between the parties? How do you expect these to change in the future?
Question 4 How relevant is this as an example that might be followed by other organisations?
What kinds of organisation might benefit from a similar approach, and how might they identify themselves? How much does its success depend on your own unique circumstances? What expertise is needed to make it a success? What training would be needed by managers and operational staff? How might you do it differently if you started over again at another organisation? Where can they go for assistance or more information?
